Sharkbench

Benchmarking programming languages and web frameworks

Flask: Development Server vs Gunicorn

Flask is a lightweight and flexible Python web framework for creating web applications. It is designed as a simple core that is easily extendable through numerous extensions for form validation, upload handling, and authentication technologies. Flask follows the "micro-framework" philosophy that gives developers more control over component choices.

This benchmark tests how fast a framework can perform concurrent HTTP requests, I/O operations, and JSON de/serialization.

OS: LinuxCPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 325Last Updated: 2026-10-05

Comparison

Gunicorn processes 1.20x requests per second compared to Development Server, a 20.00% improvement.

MedianP99

Mode	Requests per second How many requests per second can the framework handle? (higher is better)	Latency How long does it take to process a request? (lower is better)	Stability How stable is the framework under load? (median / P99 latency) (higher is better)	Memory How much memory (RAM) does the framework use? (lower is better)	Build Time Fetching dependencies + compiling, excluding SDK setup (lower is better)
Gunicorn	324 (+20.00 %)	99.7 ms (-14.71 %)	56.19 % (-28.12 %)	95.1 MB (+222.29 %)	6.60 s (+8.38 %)
Development Server	270	116.9 ms	84.31 %	29.5 MB	6.09 s

All results

MedianP99

Framework	Requests per second How many requests per second can the framework handle? (higher is better)	Latency How long does it take to process a request? (lower is better)	Stability How stable is the framework under load? (median / P99 latency) (higher is better)	Memory How much memory (RAM) does the framework use? (lower is better)	Build Time Fetching dependencies + compiling, excluding SDK setup (lower is better)
Python v3.8 / Flask v2.3 (Gunicorn)	324	99.7 ms	56.19 %	95.1 MB	6.60 s
Python v3.8 / Flask v2.3 (Development Server)	270	116.9 ms	84.31 %	29.5 MB	6.09 s

Popular web frameworks

How does Flask compare to other popular frameworks?

MedianP99

Framework	Requests per second How many requests per second can the framework handle? (higher is better)	Latency How long does it take to process a request? (lower is better)	Stability How stable is the framework under load? (median / P99 latency) (higher is better)	Memory How much memory (RAM) does the framework use? (lower is better)	Build Time Fetching dependencies + compiling, excluding SDK setup (lower is better)
Rust / Axum	26909	1.2 ms	74.55 %	5.7 MB	18.83 s
C# (.NET) / ASP.NET Core	17561	1.5 ms	22.99 %	46.6 MB	4.51 s
JavaScript (Node.js) / Express	7670	3.7 ms	18.58 %	84.8 MB	3.56 s
Java (Temurin) / Spring Boot (MVC)	3316	1.6 ms	1.83 %	244.5 MB	37.74 s
Go / Gin	1652	3.3 ms	3.59 %	13.5 MB	34.62 s
Python / FastAPI (Uvicorn)	800	30.8 ms	21.33 %	38.8 MB	7.28 s
Python / Flask (Gunicorn)	324	99.7 ms	56.19 %	95.1 MB	6.60 s
Python / Django (Gunicorn)	281	103.6 ms	57.04 %	133.1 MB	9.04 s
Python / Flask (Development Server)	270	116.9 ms	84.31 %	29.5 MB	6.09 s
PHP / Laravel	91	384.1 ms	97.03 %	54.8 MB	95.24 s